Month: December 2020

By Adam

As mentioned in the last post, we’re beginning with the end on Jim’s mentorship journey.  Specifically, we’re focusing on Episode 1, Season 9 (New Guys). 

In this episode, we find out two things: 

1. Jim does have a destination in mind for his career; it’s a destination he’s been contemplating for a while
2. Jim has, thus far, not taken any real steps toward that destination (including articulating the seriousness of his ambitions to his wife)

I’ll let Pam and Jim’s dialogue set the scene for us:

Pam: “You had that interesting thing”

Jim: “Oh”

Pam: “Yes, Jim’s friend is starting a new company based on this idea that Jim had when they were back in college”

Jim: “It’s sports marketing, basically, but the athletes are partners”

Pam: “And he wanted Jim to be a partner too”

Jim: “In Philly, so it doesn’t really work for the family, but watch this guy make a billion dollars off my idea”

Pam: “He said if it takes off, her’s going to buy us a new car”

Jim: “An Altima or better”

Pam: “I don’t think anything’s going to change in our lives now.  Just, with work and two kids, nothing interestings gonna happen to us for a long, long time”

If you watch the scene, you can tell Jim is uncomfortable with that last statement from Pam.  That’s further reinforced later on, when Jim overhears a conversation between Angela (long time office-mate) and Pete (brand new intern).

Pete: “I want to start my own business, I want to be a millionaire, lots of things, travel, make the world a better place, earn an MBA at night”

Angela: “Have you taken any concrete steps?”

Pete: “Well I’m still just fitting in here, you know, getting used to the new job.  But, definitely on the agenda.”

We then cut to a scene of Jim reflecting on that conversation, which he overheard.  During that scene, we see a lightbulb go off for Jim:

Jim: “Oh, come on Pete!  Gah, that’s just sad.  If he doesn’t watch himself, he’s going to be here for years, doing nothing….wow, maybe Pete is the new Jim”

At the end of the episode, we get to hear one side of a telephone conversation that will set the tone for Jim’s story in the season, and the ultimate culmination of his career path in The Office.

Jim: “Hey man this is Halpert.  Did you go to the other guy yet?  Great, don’t.  I’m in.  Yeah, yup,  I’m all-in.”

And, with that, Jim dives in, head first, to pursue his true ambitions.

Now… that leaves us in an interesting spot from a mentorship perspective.  Does this episode showcase Jim’s budding ambitions to live a life (and pursue a career) consistent with his true (albeit only implicit) Mission Statement?  

Or, is this a cringeworthy example of the chaotic nature of a career path formed not by the definition and pursuit of goals, but by the emotions of the moment?  Is it a cautionary tale of the vulnerabilities created by a severe lack of self-reflection and self-awareness, as evidenced by Jim’s epiphany being foisted upon him by the dialogue of others?  Or, maybe worst of all, is Jim’s decision to take the leap without consultation with his wife (much less a good Board of advisors) evidence of a lapse in character?

Here’s my opinion: luckily for us (and our mentorship journey), it seems to be...all of the above!

On one hand, Jim’s bold move gives credibility to the authenticity of his journey.  On the other hand, the multiple foibles exhibited in his uneven, fitful pursuit of this goal provides many a cautionary tale.  

Oh, if only Jim had met Kevin (again, real-life Kevin, not Office Kevin).  Because, indirectly or directly (but, mostly directly), even a casual adherence to Kevin’s mentorship program could have helped Jim avoid much of the suffering that is to come over the rest of this final season of The Office.  

So, with that being said, here's the definitive mentorship take on this episode:

Jim should be commended for finally taking ownership of his career, and taking a step toward an outcome consistent with his mission statement.  But his lack of organization to that end is going to exact a heavy toll on him (and his marriage) in the episodes (and posts!) to come.  There’s a reason Kevin’s program starts with Self-Awareness!  We’re about to see the haphazard development of that aptitude in Jim play out in front of our eyes. 

by Adam

At the risk of wandering too far off topic, I want to begin our next post analyzing Jim’s career arc in The Office (television series) by drawing an analogy to Office Space (1999 cult-classic movie).  You may be aware of this movie.  Heck, you may have even watched it (which I do recommend).  

But, even if you haven’t watched it, the ideas and classic dialogue embedded in this movie have probably touched your life.  In might have happened in a way you noticed and remembered: ever heard someone use the now highly-popularized phrase “case of the Mondays”?  Other times, the allusions from this move sound so mundane that they may slip by your conscious awareness, like when Bill Burr used the iconic phrase “TPS report” (which is a euphemism for a largely useless, bureaucratic paperwork exercise) in The Mandalorian.

By the same token, many concepts from professional development literature have permeated culture.  Even if you’re not the kind of person that devours leadership and professional development books, there’s a good chance that ideas put forth in the seminal book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey have entered your thoughts, consciously or otherwise.

I want to call out one of those ideas.  Or, as Stephen Covey would call it, the second “habit” on his list for highly effective people: Begin with the end in mind.

Now, as I’ve stated in previous posts, Jim has not had the benefit of Kevin’s mentorship program.  As viewers progress through the seasons of the Office, it becomes obvious that Jim not only does not begin with the end in mind, but actively rejects the idea of proactively moving toward an end goal at all.  Acknowledging that his job at Dunder Mifflin is part of a “career” would require him to face his situation in a way he is clearly uncomfortable with.

In large part, that makes sense.  The producers of The Office weren’t trying to produce a narrative conducive to mentoring.  They need some element of suspense to keep the audience engaged...which would be tough to keep up if each character practiced methodical self-assessment and planning as Kevin advises.

So, I’m going to propose that we cheat, and stretch Covey’s idea a bit by using it to justify a non-chronological order for our posts.  Instead of following along Jim’s career path, from beginning to end, I’m going to jump to the end.  By unveiling his journey as it nears its endpoint, we’ll be better able to judge the actions he takes on his journey.  We need that context: without knowing where you want to go, how can you know if you’re making the right moves or not?  In the final season of The Office, we finally find out, in very clear terms, where Jim really wanted to go.

So, in our next post, we’ll jump all the way to Season 9, to see where Jim’s career ends up.  And, before we do, I have to give Kudos to The Office writers for keeping Jim’s arc realistic, and thus useful for our purposes.  While the antics of fellow officemates did get a little silly after almost 200 episodes (like Andy taking a multi-week trans-oceanic sailing trip on company time), Jim’s story remains strikingly grounded in reality.  While he ultimately reaches his professional goals, as he defines them, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies.  As we alluded to in our inaugural post, life is a journey.  There is no magical destination where pure bliss is attained, hard work is no longer required, and tough decisions are replaced by moralistically clear-cut paths forward.

So, with that being said, let's get started by beginning with the end in mind!

by Adam

As you know, we’ve decided to try something ambitious on this blog.  We’re applying our mentoring framework to the life of The Office character Jim Halpert. 

In deconstructing Jim, I was tempted to start at the very beginning.  After all, there’s something inherently logical about ordering things chronologically.  If nothing else, it relieves me from the burden of coming up with a rational alternative!

But, as I began the research (LOL) for these posts (does this make Netflix tax-deductible?), I realized there was only one starting place that made sense to me.

Season 2, Episode 3 - Office Olympics

In my opinion, this is the episode where we get the clearest inauguration of the beginning of Jim’s professional arc.

It starts innocently enough: the boss (Michael Scott) and his insufferable, brook-no-nonsense lackey (Dwight Schrute) are out for the day.  Suddenly, the façade of business melts away.  Jim, seeking to alleviate his boredom, plays some paper football with his co-workers.  Pam (who would obviously be a prime candidate for Jim’s board of advisors) offers an incisive take: “Every so often, Jim dies of boredom”

But, I’d argue that Jim doesn’t die of boredom.  And, it’s precisely what he does instead that makes this episode so interesting for our purposes.  Having played paper football, Jim’s mind careens into a grand vision for the day: he will host an “Office Olympics.”  

As always, hilarity ensues.  But, against that backdrop, Jim organizes (and solicits participation for) an elaborate office-wide competition.  He manages to get all of his colleagues emotionally invested in the outcome of a series of competitions based on games that, a mere 24 hours beforehand, weren’t so much as a figment of Jim’s imagination.  This took creativity, leadership, interpersonal skills, organization, and more.  But, most importantly, Jim did it because he wanted to do it.  He was driven to do it.  If he was lucky enough to have a mentoring relationship with Kevin (real life Kevin, not "The Office" Kevin), he might have realized his behavior harkened back to a topic Kevin had discussed with him at the very beginning: identifying your strengths.

“This can certainly be the most impactful assessment you can make of yourself.  It should be the primary tool to set you on a smooth sailing to success. However, you must spend the proper amount of time reflecting on this. I have found that many mentees quickly rush through this essential step (where’s the thrill?) and therefore miss out on starting their journey with full knowledge of their strengths. They don’t start their journey working within their strength zone. I mean, if you were only given two zones to choose from--strength or weakness--which would you choose?”

-Kevin from our post “In the Zone”

Now, unfortunately for Jim, he’s never met Kevin.  But the point remains true: intentionally or not, Jim is revealing his (very significant) strengths in this episode.  And, that’s apparent to at least one other person around him.

Again, Pam delivers an incisive statement: “The thing about Jim is when he’s excited about something like the Office Olympics he gets really into it and he does a really great job, but the problem with Jim is that he works here so, that hardly ever happens”

The truth is, Jim has a large strength zone.  He’s just not regularly operating within that zone at his job.  One way to frame this situation is: well, at least he’s making the best of a bad situation.  But another, more constructive way to frame the situation is: its incumbent upon Jim to alter his situation such that it allows him to maximally use his strengths and align his work with his goals.  Indeed, that is the ultimate arc of Jim’s professional story.

But, I’m revealing too much, too early!  There is plenty of ground to cover before we examine Jim reaching his full professional self-actualization.

In conclusion, I’d encourage you to do two things:

One: watch this episode of The Office.  It’s still on Netflix through the end of 2020!

Two: Think about these scenarios in your own life.  Maybe its not as dramatic (or funny) as Jim’s predicament, but, are you operating within your strength zone?  If not, what steps are you taking to change that?  Hopefully, you have not written off your destiny as subject to chance and the whims of the outside world!

by Adam

Have you ever watched a tv series and wished you could “live a day in the life” of those characters?  Or, somewhat similarly, have you ever seen a striking, perhaps eerie, resemblance between the situation portrayed on the screen, and situations you’ve encountered in your own life?

Well, you’re not alone.  

There are many series that intentionally stretch the boundaries of our imagined existence.  As I, a self-professed Star Wars fan nerd, typed that previous sentence, I was thinking about the intergalactic bounty hunters and force wielding heroes that inhabit the hit TV series The Mandalorian.

But, there are many more series that differentiate themselves, or even define themselves, by their relatability.  That relatability can span all walks of life.  Some focus on the dynamics of relationships between individuals of families.  Some, on familiar stages in a person's life (adolescence, teenage years, college, etc.).  For professional life, however, there is one TV series that stands alone, without equal, continuing its monopoly over the space long after the airing of its series finale.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am of course talking about The Office.

But… wait.  This is a mentor blog, right?  Did Kevin and Adam give up on that idea?  Are they shamelessly “pivoting” to a new concept like a cash-strapped start-up grasping for a one last lease on life?  Is this now…a pop-culture review blog?  

Easy now.  Deep breaths.  We have not given up on mentoring.  In fact, this post is a reflection of our doubling (tripling… quadrupling?) down.  

If you're already on board with this new series: go ahead and read the first post. If you still stand ready to be convinced, read on, and I'll make my case for the value of this exercise.

While a good chunk of The Office traffics in shock humor and face-palming moments, its true genius is the relatability of most of the characters and, indeed, most of the situations they encounter.  It’s not the punchlines that make the show what it is.  It’s the backdrop--the incredibly relatable backdrop--that set the punchlines up for success.

Here, let me prove it to you.  Which one of these videos is funnier?

This incredibly instructive and well-produced video on how to suspend things in jello.

OR

This classic scene from The Office

So what is it about that scene that makes it so funny?  Is it the arbitrary and ad-hoc dispute settlement by Michael (the boss)?  Is it the new guy (Ryan) trying to navigate the existing relationships in the office and “fit in?”  Is it Dwight (whose stapler was jello-ed) digging himself in deeper by failing to have a sense of humor?  Was it Jim knowing his colleagues so well, that he could anticipate these reactions, walking right up to the line of admonishment, but not crossing it?

It’s all of those things, and more.

But, why talk about it on the blog?  

Luckily, the same manner by which The Office generates the foundation for its humor, gives us an opportunity to “mentor” Jim.  By tying the show to a relatable professional background, The Office created a character with a professional arch that is interesting and instructive.

So, over a series of posts, we’ll be diving into the life, professional and personal, of Jim Halpert.  You may be skeptical now, but trust me: there are many lessons to be learned in this exercise...not just how to suspend things in jello.